The Music Spectrum Notebook Series digs into my handwritten notes and reviews on older releases still getting my attention.
If Simple Kid worked more towards what he produces on a few tracks from his 2007 album, 2, he’d have captured more the excitement I had about 2004’s 1. However, 2 wanders and fades and wallows too much. There’s a lack of energy and groove, making it seem tired.
Like a singles artists, then, Simple Kid commands attention for two tracks: “Lil’ King Kong” and “The TwentySomething” with honorable mentions for “Self-Help Book” and “Mommy n Daddy.”
“Lil’ King Kong” finds Simple Kid at his best form—blues banjo, samples and loops, and Hip Hop swagger. “The TwentySomething” has that Led Zeppelin blues folk with a drone to the vocals, a slide guitar/banjo making it trippy, while having a Camper van Beethoven minor key/backwards sound. The lyric is dead on about motivation and self-awareness about being in your 20’s and/or being in Generation Y—“We are the TwentySomething/Don’t know where we are going/It seems we’re always running/Can’t stop 24/7/We are the TwentySomething.”
“Mommy n Daddy” is a droning, pogoing rhythm with high-pitched heavy metal whine vocals on that clubbing beat of Simple Kid. Angry at the Rev. John Miller who apparently bilked his parents “to save the congregation,” the speaker is crying out against the church and the Lord (“saw my mommy n daddy worked to the bone/saw my mommy n daddy prayin’ to you, Lord”). It’s the kind of experience that would make it hard to believe in God; it’s the kind of song that helps us understand why we struggle to have faith in Jesus.
